- I feel like I've always had a relationship
with cars within my music,
whether it be lyrically or visually.
The idea of the title 'Crash' felt really right to me,
not only because of all of the, kind of, linkbacks to lyrics
like, "I crashed my car into a bridge," in "I Love It."
And also "vroom vroom" in "Vroom Vroom."
There's also this onomatopoeic thing that is
kind of, like, related to sounds like "Boom, Clap."
I kind of want to leave the album cover
up to interpretation,
but I suppose it is at the scene of a crash,
and I guess you could argue
that I've either been, like, crashed into
and I'm this sort of, like, volatile thing
that's been hurt,
or I'm like the obstacle
that got in the way of the car, you know?
I wanted to explore that kind of theme
because it just felt quite symbolic to me.
And also, I love wearing bikinis
and I just thought
that the right thing to do was to be straddling a car,
covered in blood,
wearing a bikini.
It just felt right.
Hey, MTV News! I'm Charli XCX
and these are my top five favorite music videos
from my own catalog.
My first favorite music video of mine is "Vroom Vroom."
This was a video
where I had a lot of friends come and be
in the video with me.
And it kind of felt, like, my first,
like, big music video,
where the set was huge
and we had, like, a Lamborghini,
and we were, like, dancing
on water, and there was, like, choreo.
And it felt very much like the first big video.
The song itself is so important to me
and I think it's really important to fans, as well.
It's definitely a fan favorite,
so I'll always love that video
and I think it still looks sick, now.
My next favorite music video
of mine is "Boys."
This video was one that I directed
and it was a real hustle. [Laughs]
I basically had to pull as many favors as possible,
ask as many friends, like, drop as many names,
and, like, just was hustling to get
all of these hot, famous boys in the music video.
And we actually shot that video in London,
in New York, Australia, L.A.
We shot, like, some things in and around Coachella.
We shot in Korea.
It was, like, this global puzzle piece
that we were, like, putting together.
But, the guys were amazing.
Actually, no one was a diva,
everybody was super down
and it was just really, really fun
to basically be able to just boss
all of these men around for ages on set.
It was awesome.
My third favorite music video of mine is "Good Ones,"
which was the first song that I released from 'Crash,'
my new album.
I made this video with Hannah Lux Davis,
and she is just iconic.
We did this amazing shot
where I'm, like, on top of a coffin,
like going down these, like, marble steps.
And I nearly fell off many times and probably
would've really injured myself,
but we were just doing it for the art.
We, like, wanted the moment. We wanted the shot.
It was also really my first time doing choreo in a video,
and it was very scary, but really, really fun.
I also get to dance on my own grave,
which is something I never thought I'd do, but I did it.
I am actually loving doing choreo at the moment.
It's a new thing for me,
but it makes me feel so happy and alive
even though I'm not, like, that good yet.
It's just, like, a really amazing creative outlet.
Another one of my favorite music videos
of mine is my most recent video for a song called "Baby."
This is a very, like, dance routine-heavy video.
This song to me is just about feeling sexy
and having good sex and, like, feeling yourself.
And I wanted to put all of this, like, power and movement
into the video of this song
because it feels so strong and confident to me.
And I really wanted that to come across
just via the movement of me
and the other two dancers.
It was so fun to shoot that video,
but oh my god,
it took me a really long time to learn the choreo.
I was learning that thing for, like, months.
But, I love the video and I think it's really sexy.
And finally, my last favorite music video
from myself
is the "Beg For You" music video,
which features Rina Sawayama.
This was a video that we shot
in the freezing, freezing cold
and we were wearing basically no clothes
for the entire video.
There was a blood sacrifice,
we became the leaders of cult,
there was, like, a blood pool moment,
there was some hot dancing.
It was just all around a really great, cult-y video.
My music videos have definitely morphed over the years,
but there's always a big hair moment,
always a lot of, like, dancing,
where I'm going -
Like that.
And just kind of, like, high drama,
and sometimes funny, like, I'm a laugh, you know?
So sometimes my music videos are funny.
I kind of feel like my album 'Crash' is really drawing
from a lot of different versions of myself.
I started making, kind of, '80s inspired pop music
when I put my first album 'True Romance' out.
And so, there are definitely similarities
to this album with that one
because they're both very heavily inspired by the '80s.
And there are definitely more experimental leaning moments
on this album, as well.
And also, you know, I have written pretty big pop anthems
from "Boom Clap" to "I Love It" to "Fancy,"
so there are also moments of that on here.
So it kind of is, like, a lot of the sides
of my personality as a writer
coming together on one album
to make music that I just really, really believe in.